My initial reaction to the new Polyphonic Spree album was disappointment. I could see why critics saw it as a step forward. The arrangements are no longer afraid not to use every instrument at once. The song structure is less repetitive, too, and builds elegantly on the melodies laid down on their first album. The group proves that it's not only capable of sounding like 25 people but also, when it serves the music, like 3.

But Together We're Heavy just didn't quite work for me the way the first album had. I expected that my second listen -- this time through headphones, to better pretend the voices were coming from my head -- would make things click. But still, no dice.

An article on Slate yesterday set me off. The basic premise: Wilco ain't so hot. Let's break things down: author Chris Metcalfe says that Wilco's music has been shaped by those who came before them, and that their frontman is a headcase. Clearly, then, they are unworthy of sitting at the table with history's other great rock acts.

Alright, so maybe Metcalfe slept through the predictable process of backlash, anti-backlash, and shutting up that accompanies any record that achieves both indie cred and mainstream success. It's like the rotation of the earth: you're powerless to avoid being swept along by it, but effort is required to even be able to observe it. His is a boring but forgivable sin.

But Metcalfe can't resist signing off without dropping a few names:

well, i just decided right now that today would be music friday. it's not like i have ever before had a music friday. maybe it should become a regular thing.

they're so wacky! you gotta love it. jesus christ: Former CIA director used Pentagon ties to introduce Iraqi defector

WASHINGTON - A former CIA director who advocated war against Saddam Hussein helped arrange the debriefing of an Iraqi defector who falsely claimed that Iraq had biological-warfare laboratories disguised as yogurt and milk trucks.

R. James Woolsey's role as a go-between was detailed in a classified Defense Department report chronicling how the defector's assertion came to be included in the Bush administration's case for war even after the defector was determined to be a fabricator.

A senior U.S. official summarized portions of the report for Knight Ridder on condition of anonymity because it's top secret. The report said that on Feb. 11, 2002, Woolsey telephoned Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Linton Wells about the defector and told him how to contact the man, who'd been produced by an Iraqi exile group eager to oust Saddam. Wells said he passed the information to the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Woolsey's previously undisclosed role in the case of Maj. Mohammad Harith casts new light on how prominent invasion advocates outside the government used their ties to senior officials in the Bush administration to help make the case for war.

rest of article behind the cut.